Up against the force

Scott Winokur, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, May 19, 1996

1996-05-19 04:00:00 PDT WALNUT CREEK, CONTRA COSTA COUNTY -- Half the women officers who served in the Walnut Creek Police Department last year have filed suit against the department in federal court, charging systematic violations of their constitutional rights, harassment, discrimination and retaliation.

The four women who sued in U.S. District Court in San Francisco Friday say the mental suffering inflicted on them by male officers was as painful as a physical violation - and more typical of the mistreatment experienced by women in law enforcement.

Her superior officer "instructed me to turn the vibrator on. When I refused, he threatened to report me . . . for failure to conduct a thorough search (and) ridiculed me in front of other officers. . . ."

The women said that, aside from unwelcome sexual remarks, they were subjected to unreasonable, discriminatory demands that they act rudely toward civilians, display unprovoked aggression on the street and work twice as hard as men.

Swanson declined comment, referring a reporter to other city officials, including City Manager Don Blubaugh. Blubaugh told a Contra Costa County newspaper last year, when the complaints surfaced, that the city had a problem it needed to fix.

Blubaugh and other city officials did not return phone calls. O'Dell did not comment; Skinner did not respond to an interview request.

Five female officers remain on the 78-member force; two of them, including Ferguson, are on leave.

John Scott, attorney for the women, said their problems are representative of gender-based conflicts in many law-enforcement agencies nationwide.

"This is much more prevalent than touching," Scott said. "For every incident of garden-variety sexual harassment, it's more common to find attitudes that women are not welcome, not equal and don't belong."

Problems women face in law enforcement have been ending up in the courts for 25 years, said Donna Lenhoff, general counsel of the Women's Legal Defense Fund, a Washington, D.C., organization that monitors enforcement of equal-opportunity laws.

"Those cases have always been there - both overt sexual assaults and the more subtle discrimination," Lenhoff said. "I don't think there's been an increase."

Mosk, in a recent opinion in a sexual harassment case involving the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department, cited nearly two dozen recent cases brought by women against law-enforcement agencies nationwide.

"(W)e find that sexual harassment is . . . all too common in local police forces," Mosk wrote.

Smith, a 22-year veteran and past president of the Dallas Police Association, said, "It is worse now than ever, because it's more subtle and difficult to fight."

She said female officers often suffer because they lack political support in the community and because there is a misconception about their ability to do the job.

"People may think relative lack of (physical) strength cannot be compensated, but it can," Smith said. "Women bring things to the table that are different: a better ability to talk, to negotiate, to have a more balanced view of the job.

"And, yes, women can be as tough as men - tough mentally."

Smith said most police departments are about 5 percent female.

Stacey, a 32-year-old Concord resident, said she was subjected to a barrage of gender-based criticism in 1994 and 1995, including claims by male cops that she was insufficiently aggressive, insufficiently rude, a liability to the department because she could not jump a fence and lacking in "fighting skills."

"Upon my return from several days off," Stacey said,

"Sgt. O'Dell said . . . he thought he had gotten rid of me."

Training officers told Stacey that she was subject to different standards, she said.

"I was informed . . . that female(s) were expected to get into a physical fight . . . to prove their capability. . . ."

One officer "spent time . . . searching for a known violent repeat offender who had a penchant for physical confrontations with officers so that I (might) confront him in order to test my ability to perform by physical violence."

Stacey said Skinner told her she had to "work twice as hard as the men . . . to succeed."

Sandra Scott, a 29-year-old resident of east Contra Costa County who is also a certified public accountant by training, said two other Northern California police departments are interested in hiring her.

Scott said her training officer repeatedly pointed to civilians on the street and told her: "See how funny that person looked at you? It's because you're a woman."

Scott also said she was the target of ridicule by Skinner and of overt sexual abuse, including catcalls by unnamed officers and suggestive remarks by O'Dell.

"Sgt. O'Dell, in the presence of (two male cops), offered to show me his wound. He kept pointing to his inner thigh and then moving his finger closer to his groin."

Marilyn Carmack, 35, is 5 feet 4, but she has bench-pressed 180 pounds and she went through half her training, including a five-mile run, with a broken bone in her heel.

Carmack, now a Sacramento area resident, quit the Walnut Creek force in February 1996, she said, after a series of incidents, including one in which a supervisor demanded that she scale a wall about 6-1/4 feet high - higher than most male cops could scale.

She has been hired by another police department.

"People think we're filing this lawsuit for money," Carmack said. "But it's about removing power from those who abuse it. I did everything I could to avoid this."

Holly Ferguson, a 36-year-old East Bay resident, said in her complaint that she had been discriminated against and harassed since joining the department in 1984.

She said she was unfairly denied a desired assignment in March 1995. The next month, she said, she was reprimanded by Skinner for riding in a patrol car with another female cop. Later that same day, Ferguson said, Skinner reprimanded her for speaking to Stacey.

"He informed me to stay away from Officer Stacey and (said) I would be sorry if I failed to obey. . . . He informed me that Officer Stacey was disliked . . . she had caused a lot of problems.

"I told Sgt. Skinner that women in the department were not supported." &lt;